Four Years Of Intermittent Fasting

Where has the time gone?

Anyhoo, I thought I'd better do an update - and publish all the other posts I've got waiting in my drafts whilst I'm at it - on how I'm doing.

Well, I'm doing just fine. I've kept my weight off for three years now and no signs of regaining it permanently. Weight lost - it does go up and down a few pounds over a week - is still 60-63lbs. But considering I was gaining 3-4lbs every year, this translates to me being at least 70lbs lighter than I would have been without an easy but significant lifestyle change.

This doesn't however, mean I can eat as much as I think I want on my munchy days. Years of yo-yo dieting - and my delicate age - have conspired against me by slowing my metabolism to a crawl. But I do eat until I'm quite full ... it's just nowhere near as much as the average 50+ year old western woman eats.

Sometimes I have one substantial meal a day - in the evening - for five days a week and the other two I'll eat - and drink - a little more. When I feel I'm gaining weight - this usually adds up to around 4lbs over a month - I'll swap back to 4:3 ... which for me is still only consuming around 500 calories three days a week.

I mostly have similar meals on my fasting days, and have recently stopped counting calories, I can - after all this time - guesstimate it quite well. My favourite meal is Muesli that I mix myself, using Lidl's finest rolled oats, nuts and dried fruit. With full fat milk or double cream and a big blob of yoghurt. Other fasting days I'll have a big salad with eggs/cheese/chicken, and in winter, you can't beat soup.

The only downside I can see to my way of eating is that I still shop for a couple who eat three meals a day. This means that lots of food gets bunged in the freezer, including roast veg. I buy loads, realise I've already got salad in for the next few days, so I roast the veg - in lard and/or olive oil/butter - then freeze it. Actually I first came across that idea - and tried it - last Christmas. Bought all my veg and cooked it fresh a couple weeks before the main event, so on the day it just needed heating up and there was no need to go food shopping in the run up to Crimbo.

I've invested in a Fitbit ... it isn't nice, it wants me to walk more, sleep more, exercise more and eat more most days - this is why I stopped counting calories - and it expects me to climb more stairs ... not easy when you're in a tin hut near the sea.

But I mainly use it because I'm curious about my heart rate. When I was a little chubster my heart rate was a normal 65-ish, once I lost weight I noticed it had dropped to around 53 bpm. I used my smartarse phone to check it and thought it was underestimating it, but the blood pressure monitor - oh, by the way, that's fine too, with an average of 110/70 - was getting a similar reading.

Now it can drop as low as 42 bpm when I'm asleep , but only on the nights following a low calorie/fasting day. I'm also a lot colder then. I surmise from this that my body is quite cleverly trying its level best to slow everything down to keep me alive. The next day my heart rate goes right back up to 53-ish bpm as soon as I've eaten.

Another thing I've noticed - being a lady of a certain age - is that I rarely have hot flushes until I eat, and this is the main reason I prefer one meal a day, even if I do gain a little weight

Holidays - or rather when friends come to stay - are another time I regain LOTS of weight because we tend to eat out and I let myself go. It's not unusual for me to gain 7lbs in one week and takes me roughly three weeks to lose it again. This is no hardship because as much as I enjoy letting my hair down for a week, it's a huge relief to get back to fasting straight after.

Even though I really don't like sport, I'll be eternally grateful to the 2012 Olympics, because without it I'd probably never have watched the Horizon documentary on BBC2 ... 'Eat, Fast, And Live Longer'. I was simply flicking through the channels on the telly, trying to avoid something that makes watching paint dry seem interesting  ... and the rest - as they say - is history.

And the Olympics are almost upon us again ... I wonder what life-changing telly-viewing I'll happen upon this time...

.....

 

1. Me and Alternate Day Fasting
2. Me and Alternate Day Fasting ... Three Weeks On
3. Five Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
4. Eight Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
5. Ten Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
6. Alternate Day Fasting Three Months On
7. Alternate Day Fasting in Winter
8. Alternate Day Fasting Over Christmas
9. Me and Zumba
10. Saying Goodbye To My Curves 
11. Eight Months Of Alternate Day Fasting And Me
12. Growing Up 
13. A Year Of Alternate Day Fasting 
14. 60 Pounds Of Blubber - Vanished
15. The Perils of Alternate Day Fasting 
16. Mr Grumpy Is Losing It
17. Mr Grumpy Has Lost It
18. Fasting For Maintenance
19. Tweaking Maintenance
20. Weight Gain 
21. Still Maintaining
22. Four Years Of Intermittent Fasting

  .....

• ADF Facebook Group ... come and join us :)

Alternate Day Fasting Three Months On.

Well, if you've been following my blog other than the 'dieting' posts, you'll know that I've been a busy bee preparing for our wedding ... getting married ... then going on a family honeymoon.

I even managed to do 5 up 2 down for the honeymoon (Mon-Fri) by making the Sunday before a down day and the same for the Saturday after we came home. So only having Wednesday as an extra up day. I'm surprised at my determination and commitment. Three months ago I thought by the time I'd got the wedding out of the way, I'd be hiding the bathroom scales and pulling faces at the mention of that dirty, dirty word DIET ... this was all assuming I even made it that far.

Not a bit of it. Being able to eat a normal diet four days a week and only being ultra-strict for three days - and always knowing that if ever I'm hungry then tomorrow is a munch day - has made this so easy ... too easy in fact to ever give up.

I've now lost a total of 31lb (gained 1lb last week eating fast food at Center Parcs) and have set a realistic target for a further loss of another 26lb by next summer. I won't stress over little gains or no losses here and there, it happens even on a regular diet regime.

More pleasing than the weight loss is the inch loss:

1. Chest 3"
2. Waist 6"
3. Hips 4"
4. Both upper arms and each thigh 2"

There are lots more bits I measured but I'm sure we've seen enough now :)

I still feel great, especially on the down days. Anyone would logically think that being hungry would make you weak, dizzy or faint - or at least grumpy - I've felt none of those but I do now drink an awful lot of concentrate low calorie squash and plenty of fruit/herbal teas to combat hunger which in all probability is actually thirst anyway ... and I don't actually fast in the literal term.

I don't have breakfast, my first meal is about 1.30pm. These days because I'm at home, I have a warm salad from t'shop across t'road for lunch (approx 250 cals), then one of my amazing home made vegetable soups out of the freezer at about 7.00pm. Or I have 'Skinny Soup' from the same shop and occasionally tinned chopped tomatoes on toast.

I still see no reason to vary it over-much, I like soup and can flavour it to suit myself. Plus I eat a far wider variety of foods on my up days, so no chance of becoming bored. I no longer count the calories in my drinks but estimate that I take in approx 550 cals now on the down days ... and it's still working for me.

I've got a new way of doing my vegetable soup now, but this is because I can't stand certain vegetables either in soup or stew but they add bulk without too many calories. These include turnips, carrots and parsnips (yuk). So instead of cooking everything together, I cook these with only a little of the stuff I do like - potatoes, leeks, celery, peppers, mushrooms, red onions, then zzzzzz it down to a purée and do all the rest in the slow cooker and keep it moderately chunky, before mixing together and freezing it. Yum yum yum.

I can't recommend enough the Alternate Day Fasting group on Facebook for support and encouragement. Anyone wishing to embark on this particular journey to a slimmer body and hopefully healthier way of life ... with no hang-ups about 'oh, no I shouldn't have eaten that - oh bugger it, I've ruined the diet, I may as well pig out' ... would do well to join us there, I even contribute words of wisdom occasionally - well, I admitted weighing myself while holding my boobs up in case there was a chance I'd weigh less  ...

.....

1. Me and Alternate Day Fasting
2. Me and Alternate Day Fasting ... Three Weeks On
3. Five Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
4. Eight Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
5. Ten Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
6. Alternate Day Fasting Three Months On
7. Alternate Day Fasting in Winter
8. Alternate Day Fasting Over Christmas
9. Me and Zumba
10. Saying Goodbye To My Curves 
11. Eight Months Of Alternate Day Fasting And Me
12. Growing Up 
13. A Year Of Alternate Day Fasting 
14. 60 Pounds Of Blubber - Vanished
15. The Perils of Alternate Day Fasting 
16. Mr Grumpy Is Losing It
17. Mr Grumpy Has Lost It
18. Fasting For Maintenance
19. Tweaking Maintenance
20. Weight Gain 
21. Still Maintaining
22. Four Years Of Intermittent Fasting

  .....

• ADF Facebook Group ... come and join us :)

Our 2011 Center Parcs Holiday

I'm not going to go through all the pros and cons of Center Parcs [Sherwood Forest] because I've already done it in a previous post. I wouldn't even have bothered writing this were it not for my grumpy old man's latest faux pas.

I will however, mention that this time we stayed [eight of us] in an executive lodge rather than one of those cheaper peasant sheds [I really must stop calling them that, it's rubbing off]. We had four en-suite bedrooms, two with big rainforest showers and two with posh baths that lit up and blew bubbles up your bum.

All of the bedrooms had LCD TV's, as did the games room and lounge area. Two of the bedrooms had balconies with tables and chairs, plus - in my case - damp towels and my camera tripod. We also had our own sauna - phew, was it hot in there!

Again we had maid service, which we didn't avail ourselves of - apart from towel changes - this is because we decided that we were far too untidy to let the maid in. It'd be no good any of my family getting rich and having staff to 'do' for them because they wouldn't know how not to tidy up first. I would, however - being a bit [ok, a lot] more domestically challenged than the rest of my family - be prepared to get used to having cleaning staff if I come in to money.

Anyway, on to the reason for me writing this short ... er, biography. You know, it always starts off as one paragraph or at the most two ... then I get carried away:

Ahem, my GOM's latest 'foot in mouth' came when we were in the swimwear shop next to the dome, I'd been in the day before - after a few splashes around the rapids - and spotted a tankini I liked but wasn't carrying any money. This time I was going to try and hopefully buy - to add it to my collection of [six] others.

The only one in my size was gone, boo hoo. I turned to grumpy and said ... 'Somewhere in there [pointing to the dome and waggling my finger], there's a fat woman walking around in my tankini!'

Reply ... 'yes there is' ...

The Grand Opening And A Bit More Shaking

We went last week to open the caravan aka ‘the manor’, the usual hardy bunch were there getting their money’s worth. Most sensible folk wait until at least Easter before braving the weather while we twits suffered the sludge, the cold and the all pervasive damp that goes with sitting in a glorified tin shack in an old turnip field mid-March ... but we are anything but sensible.

I was relieved to go because as things were at home I was starting to think I was actually ill and I don't do ‘ill’ too well as I'm a bit mardy. I’d already written about the vibrations making me feel sick. Well this went on for over two weeks. Of course the hypochondriac in me had been checking on t'interweb for what diseases I may have been suffering from as I noticed that I was shaking on and off even when I wasn't at home - this was starting to scare me.

Having said that, it was much worse at home but the only bits of me that felt at all trembly were the bits that were touching the floor, chair, sofa, bed or even worse the bath; as any movement I made when laid in that made me feel like the whole thing was going to tip over and so completely spoilt my daily wallowing sessions with a good - but often wrinkled [dried on the radiator] - book.

It was almost [almost but not quite] impossible to use my beloved computer, it took me five separate sessions just to answer Ted's last comment. I deduced that even though the house was indeed shaking, other things with vibrations like my computer made it worse; I was tuned in to just about everything!

It was a bit of a vicious circle really, I knew the house shaking was making me sick so I needed to go out but I felt too ill to go anywhere - so didn't. Eventually the sickness wore off just leaving the trembling, I started timing the vibrations - one minute on and approximately ten seconds off.

One day last week my sanity was saved. The grumpy old man just happened to be sitting where I do my work and he looked up at me and said ‘I can feel it, tell me when it stops and starts.’

I told him ‘on.....off..on.....off’ and he agreed with me that there was a very subtle vibration. That was the only time he felt it apart from early on when it was much more noticeable - at last, proof that I wasn't either ill or completely round the twist. I did ask him if he was only humouring me as he could see I was getting more stressed each day because even though I no longer felt sick, I couldn't relax properly as the tingling made me feel tense and on edge all the time - and being bone idle, this will never do!

It was a bit like I was using one of those electric muscle stimulator doo-dah's you wire yourself up to that work your muscles without you actually having to do any exercise [my kind of exercise], I figured that with the amount of time I spent sat down with a tingling rear end that I'd probably end up with a size 10 bum to go nicely with my size, ahem 1* boobs - well I can hope can't I?

I'd also been experimenting by lying on the floor in different positions [and getting up fairly quickly when I heard the GOM coming so he didn't think I'd collapsed in a heap] and whizzing from room to room on my computer chair - trust me, I did have time for this as it was impossible for me to work with the travel sickness that the shaking had induced, so ended up putting in my two weeks holidays that I was owed [lucky coincidence] and had to use before April.

On the odd occasion when we did go out [after the sickness had passed], I noticed that wherever we went I felt the vibrations of anything and everything. Where I sat at a cafe for lunch [Calver] I felt every car and lorry go past. Then later at Peak Village, each shop we went into the heating set my feet tingling, I was starting to feel like some sort of chunky tuning fork - hmm ... or guitar string, I was twanging so much.

Thankfully a week away from the constant vibration seemed to cure me, the only thing that vibrates at the manor is the fridge and I hardly felt it. Since I've been back [Tuesday] I can still feel a slight tingle in my feet when Heanor Haulage are moving stuff on their back yard and again when I'm sat at my computer, but it no longer bothers me like it did.

Oh bugger! I spoke too soon, it's as bad as ever again [Saturday 27th March] I need another holiday ...

Center Parcs

We spent last Monday - Friday at Sherwood Center Parcs, we had a great time as usual. I have to wonder though where they expect everyone to go, at times the dome is overcrowded fit to burst and the car-park is overfull. I have two maps, a new one and one that gets left in my ‘Center Parcs swim-bag’ which must be about 8 years old now. Comparing the two, there are at least 200 extra ‘villas’ aka cabins, chalets, huts and sheds - depending on their size and how peasanty you are, and everyone has to be somewhere, seeing as the dome is the only free activity, that's where most people hang out.

We had been in our villa before and really liked the views so chose it again [we paid extra for the choice]. Unfortunately it had been upgraded from a ‘comfort 1 bed studio’ to an ‘executive lodge’ which meant:

1. It cost a lot more.
2. There was a telephone.
3. Complementary towels [but not to take in the dome]
4. A Philips Senseo coffee maker.
5. Philips blender.
6. A dishwasher.
7. Microwave.
8. Clock radio
   
9. Wifi access.
10. 2 TV’s
11. DVD player.
12. Toiletries.
13. Hairdryer.
14. Wine cooler.
    
15. And worst of all maid service.
    

It’s all very well having a maid come in but it meant that I had to tidy up, empty the bins and find somewhere to hide my shabby knickers and best bra [the T-shirt type that retains it's bumps, arrived in it's own suitcase, needs a shelf all to itself and appropriate supporting scaffolding] before she arrived. This resulted in me hanging the ‘No Service Today Thanks’ doo dah on the door to prevent the above. We went out and left the villa with a ‘lived in’ look [ok, untidy], came back a little later, took the sign off the door thinking the cleaner [maid, whatever] had been and gone, went out again, came back in a snow blizzard - oh dear, the bins were empty and everywhere was tidy - my face glowed with embarrassment.

The storage space for one couple is appalling, 5 coat hangers in a wardrobe that can’t properly accommodate anything hanging up as the rail went across, the space wasn’t even a foot deep so everything was skewiff. The rest was open shelves. Looking back at old photo’s I see that our clothes then were on a shelf above the bed, so no real improvement. Oh and there was a safe - which didn’t open, not that I'd got anything valuable to put in it, but that's besides the point - I could have hidden my underwear in it.

We had everything in the kitchen a professional chef could require - except somewhere to put food, if it didn’t fit in the fridge, it obviously wasn’t meant to be there, I can only deduce they must have wanted somewhere to store their extra pans, Pyrex dishes, etc and for us to go and eat out - not on your nelly! I'd seen their price lists for eating out.

It was blissfully quiet in our ‘villa’ - except when my family was visiting. There was no noise from the neighbours as even though we were adjoined both sides, the buildings have a double wall. The only sounds we heard were the smoke alarms which were very sensitive, very noisy and very frequent, you only had to wave a slice of bread at the toaster to set them off. But I suppose in the middle of all that woodland, fire is a big hazard.

The villa was clean [until we arrived] and warm at all times, the heating automatically adjusted throughout the day but you could turn it up if you wanted to. The radiator in the bathroom was in a stupid place - or the toilet was, twice I burnt my leg on it - but it certainly woke me up properly. The bed, ahhh, the bed - I wanted to bring it home with me, I've never been away and spent a more comfortable night, I will be buying a mattress topper as the bed there had one.

Compact and bijou was how my sister described our pad, they had a bigger but more peasanty villa with a lake view, [they still got a dishwasher and 2 TV's] we spent our evenings there with them playing cards until my brother-in-law finally won a game - late Thursday night. This villa was also their regular choice, for which they had to pay extra with it being in the central area.

One day we went for a walk around the lake and ended up at a bird hide, as we walked in to the semi-dark I had a quick glance around and noticed a man with a ‘proper’ camera at the far right sat with all the quiet people so I immediately tucked my compact ‘point and shoot’ job in my pocket and turned left to join the small noisy people doing their exaggerated whispering - as this was more suited to my grumpy old man [he doesn't do quiet]. Gradually everyone left except us and the photographer chap. My GOM carried on whispering at 60 decibels about which birds he could see while I'm trying to shush him, when this man started ‘whispering’ as loud as us. ‘Oi! Will you two be quiet?’ It turned out to be my brother-in-law who was trying - with great success [no thanks to us] to get some decent photo's of a Great Spotted Woodpecker, unfortunately the Jay wasn't nearly as obliging.

There aren't many shops [more than there used to be though], but we went in them all to laugh at the price labels, there weren't many customers in any shop except in the Parc market and Funtastic [toy shop], presumably everyone else had already been in to laugh at the prices or maybe even part with their money - not everyone is as mean as me. A browse around ‘Natural Elements’ resulted in me going back to the villa and stashing the complimentary toiletries in my case.

Between booking and arriving I received about a dozen emails trying to get me to pre-book bikes, meals out - or in [£2.50 delivery charge], and my activities - they obviously don't know me very well, the most active thing I wanted to do was press the button on my camera. I didn't go there to recklessly spend my money - when I go on a cheap holiday, then I spend lots of money.

We have been on a cheaper and much more ‘activity’ filled Center Parcs holiday, we were then eight sharing a villa, booked well in advance, made no choice where it was, but we did need bikes to get around.

There are some people I know who tried to sneak extra people in the boots of two cars, they got caught because they were daft enough to ‘stow them away’ in the pub car park just around the corner from Center Parcs. When they finally got to the ‘Arrivals Lodge’ they were ready and waiting for them - it made excellent Father of the Bride and Best Man speech material as it was a hen party that committed this particular offence.

Expense apart, I like Center Parcs, for us it's a ‘chill-out’ holiday where we go for the peace and quiet and a few mad dashes down the rapids, chutes and grand cascade [I love playing in water]. I am already looking to book another mid-week break for later in the year. The down side is that all the activities - with the exception of the dome aka sub-tropical swimming paradise - are outrageously expensive when you consider how much you've already paid just to be there.

If like me, you're prepared to pay extra when you book, rather than on activities when you get there, you can have the villa you want - it's all down to personal choice, I'd rather pay more for views and location than for swinging through trees, being smothered in a volcanic mud wrap in the hope of regaining my youthful skin [my GOM has offered to do that for free] or whacking at a golf ball.

The wild life ... well it isn't, it's tame and pops by for a snack or in the case of the swans and one squirrel, knock on the patio door and come in. In fact the only money we spent was on feeding the little blighters.

What number villa? I'm not telling you - or it may be booked when we want it again ...

Abducted by Aliens?

We did our usual route to Skegness and started reminiscing about one journey about six years back when we first bought the manor - I can't remember which sarcastic friend christened it that but it's stuck.

Anyway, on that particular occasion, we were on our way and had planned to do a pit-stop at Tattershall as usual, when one of our crumbly friends in the other car - she with the ancient bladder - phoned me to ask if we'd mind stopping on the A17 at a roadside cafe. This was fine with us as we're most obliging for a couple of grumpys and it would make a nice change.

We got fed and watered and made up our minds to stop at Tattershall as originally planned, because madam insisted that she'd need to 'go' again by then seeing as it's about half an hour further on. It took 10 minutes - or so it seemed, both cars turned into the car park, we all laughed at how quick we'd got there and drove back out to continue our journey.

We've timed it since and we're still puzzled. I've come to the conclusion - tongue in cheek - that we were abducted by aliens, yes both cars. But the really annoying thing is we must have been rejects, I mean, what's wrong with us? Admittedly three of us could stock a chemists at a push and the fourth is still holding out for an allergy to brag about, but we're all fine specimens of antiquedom!

So aliens, next time you want to abduct me, can you see to it that my entire journey only takes half an hour rather than the usual two and half hours. I'm still waiting and hoping for 'Beam me up Scotty' technology or failing that I want a water-shute like in the Barclays advert. Yes, that would suit me fine ...